Exemplary Student Work Showcased at the 14th Annual Digital Symposium

By Giana Nardelli 

The Florida State English department’s annual celebration of digital creativity returns for its 14th
year. Since the beginning of this tradition in 2009, the Digital Studio proudly features the work
of students in an exhibit called the Digital Symposium. 

The Symposium itself is an online collection of undergraduate and graduate students’

submissions, which are nominated to the showcase by English faculty and staff members.
Students are also able to submit their work to be considered. 

With submissions that range from students’ e-portfolios, scholarly presentations, humanitarian
rights projects, and more, the Symposium accepts a wide range of artifacts that are scholarly in
nature. This year’s Symposium pays homage to the evolution of digital technology in the 21st
century.

“For the 14th anniversary of the Digital Symposium, we

celebrate the evolution of technology and its ability to connect
with others in a virtual space… Technology has allowed us to
evolve creatively and access new possibilities of design to
create any digital work and reach and celebrate each other,” the
Digital Symposium’s website states, “This year, we
commemorate the digital work that the Symposium showcases
as it exemplifies hard work and its fueled exigencies. We hope
that this serves as a source of inspiration to partake in the
connectivity technology has built for our community.”

Emily Tomczak, a Rhetoric and Composition graduate student

here at FSU, is this year’s symposium coordinator. She says
that, to her, the most important part of having a Digital
Symposium is “its ability to bring attention to the value and creativity of digital composing.” 
 
For students who want their work displayed, Tomczak says they “should focus on creating strong
[digital] projects in the English department.” Any student from any discipline is eligible to be
considered for the Symposium, but in most circumstances English instructors nominate students
for work that has been completed in an English course. She also emphasizes that all of the works
that are selected have strong attention to detail, setting good examples for students who are also
currently creating and who will create in the future.

Lillian Keller is one of thirty four students whose projects were selected to be displayed in this
year’s Digital Symposium. Keller, a first year undergraduate biological sciences major, created
her portfolio on the Ganges River. 

The Role of Religion in the Pollution of the Ganges

River was inspired by “[her high school] senior year
my environmental science teacher, [who] showed a documentary on the pollution of the Ganges
river… It really interested me, and my first semester of freshman year my instructor introduced a
project and I immediately thought about using the Ganges river for my overarching topic.”

The portfolio is an impressive and informative set of infographics that describe the severity of
the pollution in that region, as well as the religious significance that the river has. 

At the time of creating her artifacts, Keller wasn’t very familiar with the Digital Studio, but when
her ENC2135 professor emailed her and asked if she wanted to be nominated, she immediately
said yes. “The symposium is a great opportunity for people’s work to be displayed and
appreciated. I feel very honored… I never thought I was very good at writing, so it feels very
fulfilling to have people really enjoy my writing and learn something from a topic I am very
passionate about.”

The 2023 Digital Symposium was made available Wednesday, March 1st. It is available online
here, and it will remain accessible along with prior Symposiums. And for more information on
the Digital Symposium Series, visit https://wr.english.fsu.edu/Digital-Symposium.

Giana Nardelli is an English major on the editing, writing, and media Track, with a second
major in media/communication studies.

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